Apple early Friday morning released the much-anticipated iPhone Software 2.1 Update recently billed by company chief executive as a "big update" that fixes "a lot of bugs."

What it fixes

A page dedicated to the release on Apple's website details a dozen major enhancements including:
Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls.
Significantly better battery life for most users.
Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes.
Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts.
Faster installation of 3rd party applications.
Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications.
Improved performance in text messaging.
Faster loading and searching of contacts.
Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display.
Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages.
Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts.
Genius playlist creation [Illustrated by one reader] .
How to install

Before installing the update, make sure you are using iTunes 8 [Download Link], then connect your iPhone to your computer.
When iTunes opens, select your iPhone under Devices in the Source List on the left.
In the iPhone Summary pane, click Check for Update.
Click Download and Install. Do not disconnect your iPhone until the update has finished.
Security fixes

iPhone Software 2.1 also patch six security vulnerabilities.
An application may be able to read another application's files.
Multiple vulnerabilities in FreeType v2.3.5.
mDNSResponder is susceptible to DNS cache poisoning and may return forged information.
Predictable TCP initial sequence numbers generation may lead to TCP spoofing or session hijacking.
An unauthorized user may bypass the Passcode Lock and launch iPhone applications.
Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Other fixes

Some of the other enhancements and observations reported by readers thus far:
No sign of background push notification or turn-by-turn GPS support.
The texting memory leak problem seems to be fixed.
Apps are running a lot faster.
No scrolling lag, faster launching of SMS app.
New "3G" logo in the menu bar sans box.
Updating applications keeps their icons in place on the home screen.
App syncs still sluggish compared to media syncs.
Readers are encouraged to share their own discoveries in the AppleInsider forum thread for this article.

Installed it and it is much faster overall. I miss the old 3G logo, which they replaced without the box. I also noticed that while my radio signal is still around -95 to -101, it shows as 4-5 bars. Before 2.1, it showed it as 1-2 bars. No scrolling lag, faster opening SMS and Safari seems snappier

Overall the firmware seems faster, But I just dont get why apple wont do little thing to make people happy how hard would it be for landscape texting and mms? The proformence improvments are nice and for sure welcome, but comes up just a little short for me after the mess from the get go with the 3G iphone. You would thank apple would drop a few extras on us for our troubles!

Faster overall. Possible to scroll webpages while they load. Faster loading times for web pages. Had no problem with reception before so I haven't tried it. Updating applications keeps the icon in place (and seems faster).

Remaining problems:
- Contact application still takes alot of time at startup before letting me scroll the list.

- Swedish word corrector still very buggy, many words get extremely weird suggestions and it does not seem to learn very well either. Well, hopefully they have received my bug report....

Overall the firmware seems faster, But I just dont get why apple wont do little thing to make people happy how hard would it be for landscape texting and mms!

Are you sure you want MMS? Really really really sure?

I mean, if everyone had a phone that could display pictures in e-mail (or their Facebook app), why would we need it in the first place? Then we could just e-mail them to people, regardless of whether or not they're on a phone or a computer, and be sure they can receive them. Better yet, we wouldn't have to pay the freakin' carrier $4.99 for the privilege!

I realize old standards die hard, but let's do all we can to kill this one.

app syncs are still turtle slow compared to music syncs. Why can I transfer 4 gigs of music quicker than 250mb of apps on the iphone?

Because music is just a bunch of files that are able to be accessed, the apps are actually getting installed and becoming part of the operating system. I agree, it should still not be THIS slow, but there is still a lot more going on when you install apps than a simple file transfer.

Phone is definitely more responsive. Contact list comes up nice and quick. Backups are also much faster now and that is one thing I was really looking for in this update. Wow, Safari is really responsive. Gmail comes up alot quicker now, did they improve the javascript engine? Never really had a problem with 3G here in Atlanta so can't tell if calls are better. Will have to play some more.

Well The Bugs Seem To Be Fixed! So let's start complaining about something else like it stops my toaster from toasting my bread just right...lol. Kudos Apple!

What will be nice is when Push is put through and a few other little apps come along that will make life a little easier like voice recognition, GPS turn by turn commands just to mention a couple. I am sure it won't be long before Apple comes out with those.

And by the way, for all you idiots who say iPhone users are lab rats for Apple, You must have short term memory. Microsoft has been doing it for over a decade and are still doing it with Vista.

I don't understand the feedback being given about the Contacts application lag. Is it still there or not? Some say it is, some some it isn't. That doesn't make sense (it's even mentioned in the features list). So how is it really?!